Touring Club Italia thinks little known Passo Rolle ranks alongside the Dolomite greats.

Also, Euro16 security queues really bite in Dover. Also, EU approves Brakes takeover; football fans cars towed away at Lens; Lithuania driver deploys smoke and spikes; horrific crash as car strays onto closed rally road in Finland; Austria police nab more migrants at Hungary border; EU law to make private land insurance compulsory ‘soon’.

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PASSO ROLLE AND THE MATTERHORN OF THE DOLOMITES

Rolle ranks alongside the greats says motoring club.

Cimone, the Matterhorn of the Dolomites. Photo Touring Club Italia.

Among its list of the best Italian mountain roads last week Touring Club Italia named the little known Passo Rolle.

According to the national motoring club, it ranks alongside well-known greats such as Mont Cenis, Petit and Grand St Bernard, Simplon, Bernina, Stelvio, Pordoi, Falzarego and Wurzjoch. 

No surprise really with this view.

One of the most southerly Dolomites high roads, in the east anyway, Rolle runs 20 miles between Predazzo and San Martino di Castrozza.

Aside from pine trees early on, the view is mainly of the Dolomite group Pale di San Martino.

Particularly Cimon della Pala, pictured, also known as Cimone or The Matterhorn of the Dolomites (3184m, 10,446ft).

The paved road way is narrow but not quite as bad as the track shown in the picture.

Rolle would be a great road to take on the cross-country route between Venice and Bolzano.

Best of all, despite peaking at 1989m (6525ft), Rolle is open all year. More at PassFinder.

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Enhanced security checks during the Euro16 football tournament are really starting to bite on the British side of the Channel. Delays were expected at the weekend, but drivers waited for up to ninety minutes this Monday lunchtime, with three days still to go until the next England match (against Wales in Lens near Lille on Thursday afternoon). Drivers heading for Le Mans are also affected. Peter Adams arrived at 12:30 for the 13:55 sailing but missed the boat due to the queue. ‘It’s wise to get here much earlier than usual,’ he told us. P&O says it will put delayed passengers on the next available sailing. However, by around 15:00 it seems the queue had disappeared. Photo @POFerriesUpdate

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roundup: the largest American food distributor Sysco has received European Commission approval for its $3.1 billion takeover of the UK’s largest food distributor Brakes (which also operates in Ireland, France, Sweden, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg) reports @FleetTransport. The deal should close in early July says Undercurrent News… twenty illegally parked cars belonging to spectators at Saturday’s Albania-Switzerland Euro16 match in Lens in northern France on Saturday were towed away by authorities reports La Voix du Nord. Strict ‘transport plans’ have been set up in and around football stadiums during the tournament. See more… An errant driver near Marijampole in southern Lithuania deployed first a smokescreen then spikes in an effort to evade pursuing police. Needless to say he was eventually apprehended but not after a hugely risky chase. See the gobsmacking video at Mashable… a horrifying accident in south east Finland on Saturday after a car apparently strayed onto a road closed for rally practice according to YLE News. One person in the private vehicle was killed and six others seriously injured on the dirt road through a forest in Miehikkälä close to the Russian border… Austrian police stopped a van containing 17 migrants on the A4-M1 border with Hungary at Nickelsdorf yesterday reports Novinite. Since the recent closure of the so-called ‘Balkan Route’, migrant discoveries have been few and far between on the still heavily monitored crossing… UKIP’s European Parliament transport spokesman Jill Seymour says users of mobility scooters, golf buggies, ride-on lawnmowers, and all other vehicles on private land – including racing cars – will shortly have to buy insurance following a CJEU Court of Justice of the European Union ruling. Last year’s Vnuk case was brought by a farmworker in Slovenia after he was knocked off a ladder by a tractor. The EU court found in his favour. Seymour says the judgement will be ‘implemented in UK law soon’.

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Lamborghini’s Miura tour picks out some fine hotels in northern Italy. Also, quick news roundup: more migrant trouble in Calais and Zeebrugge; UK army builds world’s longest pontoon bridge in Poland; Portugal’s most dangerous road named; Finland’s staggering cost of crashes; slow progress on Ukraine roads; new Jersey drive guide.

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Lamborghini’s 50th Anniversary Miura Tour kicked off yesterday in Bologna with a line up along Piazza Minghetti. Drivers stayed last night in the Grand Hotel Majestic housed in an 18th century palace. Today the group heads to Parma and an overnight stop at the Park Hotel Pacchiosi in the old town after tours of the Lamorghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese, and the Dallara factory in Parma for a meeting with Miura chief designer Gian Paolo Dallara. Friday is off to the coastal resort of Viareggio and the Arc Nouveau Principe di Piemonte in the city centre, after a drive along the Cinque Terre. The final night is in Florence at the Westin Excelsior Hotel, a Renaissance palace overlooking the river a few steps from Ponte Vecchio. Follow along at #Miura50. Photo @Lamborghini

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roundup: more clashes overnight on the A16 and N216/A216 port access road in Calais. Five migrants and one police officer injured reports La Voix du Nord… British Army engineers have built the longest ever amphibious bridge at 350 metres in Chelmno Poland says Army.MOD, on Exercise Anaconda, the largest NATO war game in eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War… An inspection by BAG Bundesamt fur Guterverkehr in Regensburg, Bavaria, last month found 32 percent of trucks had manipulated tachograph readings… Portugal‘s most dangerous road is the EN125 in the Algarve which runs along the entire southern coast from the Spanish border – 66 people have died on the road since 2010 according to The Portugal News. The government  has now committed to improvements… Every road death in 2014 cost taxpayers in Finland €2.77 million reports YLE News with each serious injury costing €790,000 and minor injuries €34,000… A police action in Zeebrugge, Belgium, netted 44 migrants attempting to board trucks destined for the UK says Deredactie. Numbers of ‘transit-migrants’ hit 1000 per month at the beginning of the year, fell to 335 in May but rose to 114 in the first week of June… the new Ukraine prime minister is not happy with the pace, quality and – particularly – value of roads’ renewal. ‘I want to say that for this we will punish very severely. Every hryvnia should be spent for certain purpose. It is about the road and its quality,’ said Volodymyr Groysman today according to a government statement. He now wants weekly reports on progress, plus plans for the week ahead… Jersey has issued new guidance for visiting drivers, particularly its apparently unique ‘filter in turn’ junctions, all-island 40mph speed limit and ‘give way’ Yellow Transverse Line…

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Stepped up security for the Euro 16 football tournament is being felt already around the Continent.

Also, Ford recreates the Le Mans circuit around Paris. And quick news on Calais + Scandinavian migrants; new EU-funded Dutch road widening; possible road tolls due for all vehicles in Belgium; persistent Norovirus on Baltic ferry and relaxed truck ban in Bulgaria.

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DRIVING TO EURO 2016

Stepped up security a problem for everyone during Euro16, not just fans.

After many weeks of free-flowing traffic, queues have returned to the A12-A93 border crossing between Innsbruck and Munich – Austria and Germany – at Kufstein as the German authorities step up checks ahead of Euro16. Photo @foto-webcam.eu.

Security is sure to cast a long shadow over the Euro16 football tournament in France from this weekend, and not just for fans attending the matches.

Germany has already stepped up border controls with Austria after several weeks without regular queues.

Drivers have typically waited more than half an hour at the three motorway crossings.

However, with the exception of the E19 across the Belgian border into Lille, there have been no noticeable border delays around France – yet – though Spanish hauliers have complained of delays on the A1-A63 Atlantic coast motorway in the past few days.

And, unusually, there have been queues at passport control in Dover this week.

Meanwhile, as is now common practice at high profile public events in Europe, exclusion zones will be set up around the stadiums ahead of the Euro16 matches plus restricted circulation and parking.

Each of the ten venues in the nine cities hosting the competition around France has its own traffic plan – see Lille, Lens (English), Paris (Saint-Denis, Parc des Princes), Lyon – Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille and Nice. 

The advice is to get there early. The stadiums are open three hours ahead of matches and the ‘fan zones’ even before that.

Security is not just aimed at preventing terrorism but hooliganism too hence restrictions on alcohol sales.

For instance, for every match played in Lens near Lille during the tournament there will be a 24 hour alcohol ban in place with police even searching cars entering the city.

In Bordeaux the sale of takeaway spirits is banned 20:00-08:00 in the whole of the Gironde region, plus no drinking around the train station and airport, or around the stadium and fan zone 11:00-07:00, or outside of licensed premises from midnight before match days until 08:00 the morning after. 

The bigger problem is fear of terrorism rather than an actual attack, but – should the worst happen – the French interior ministry has just published a new, free app – SAIP – which will send a notification to fans in the vicinity of an emergency.

Resources: the British embassy has its own ‘Football Liaison Officer’ John Sykes who has visited all the venues and posts a regular blog (as well as the FCO ‘Be On The Ball Euro16‘ site). Also follow @UKinFrance on twitter and @FCOTravel advice. More info on the venues is available on the UEFA website. Eurotunnel also has a guide to Euro16.

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Alas the Ford GT Le Mans challenger is confined to the back of a clear truck this morning as it embarks on a tour of central Paris. Its lap of the French capital is modelled on the Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe with the Mulsanne Straight along the Champs Elysees and Tuileries and the Porsche Curves at Montparnasse. The tour starts at the Arc de Triomphe at 09:00 and finishes there at 14:00. See the schedule. Photo @FordFrance

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roundup: a transport advisory group in Flanders, northern Belgium, has recommended extending the new electronic truck toll system to all vehicles in order to meet climate targets reports Flanders Today. The MORA Mobility Council of Flanders is a broad church of interested parties from the Touring motoring club, to councils, unions and green groups. Belgium got as far as trialling a GPS-based road toll system before the most recent general election… Despite reports from Sweden this week that fewer migrants were attempting the crossing from Denmark by secreting themselves on trucks, reports from the latter say it is still an issue according to the Copenhagen Post… The €300 million widening project of the A6 where it connects to the A1 Amsterdam-Schiphol airport link at Almere in the Netherlands will be part-guaranteed by the EFSI European Fund for Strategic Investments, i.e. an €80 million loan from the EIB European Investment Bank… Norovirus has reappeared on the Baltic Silja Symphony Helsinki-Stockholm cruiseferry despite best efforts to clean the ship, and the port terminals reports YLE News… Calais migrants have taken the worrying extra step of adding gas bottles to the burning piles of rubbish they throw onto the port road almost nightly reports Lloyd’s Loading List. The numbers of police patrolling has decreased in recent months says the paper though a new fence to protect the port road should be completed by mid-month… The ban on trucks when temperatures exceed 35 degrees in Bulgaria is to be lifted reports Novinite. Transit trucks will also be allowed to drive at the weekend – except for in cities, and on accident prone stretches of road – police, hauliers and the authorities have agreed.

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All of Germany’s 150 ‘Scenic Routes’ are now collected together online.

Also, Gotthard Tunnel shut every weeknight this month as Swiss voters reject new road fund but accept new Geneva ‘lake crossing’. And, Norway has not decided to ban fossil-fuelled cars by 2025 (and neither has the Netherlands). A bad weekend for coach travel, including a random shooting from a bridge in France. Soldiers bolster checks at Dutch ports.

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GERMANY’S 150 SCENIC ROUTES NOW ONLINE

From the Romantic Road to tree-lined avenues, and open cast mines.

Photo Ramsauer Church, on the Alpine Road via Germany Travel.

All of Germany’s 150 brown-signposted official ‘Scenic Routes’ have been assembled on one webpage by the national tourist agency.

The routes criss-cross the country, from less than 100km to nearly 3000km.

Each profile includes a map as well as places of interest along the way.

The best known include the 450km German Alpine Road from Lake Constance almost to Salzburg via Hitler’s Berchtesgaden.

And also the Baden Wine Route through the Black Forest, and the Romantic Road from Wurzburg to the fairy tale Neuschwanstein Castle near the Austrian border at Fussen.

However, the routes cover more than just natural history.

Eye-catching alternatives include the German Avenues Route, 2900km from Rugen on the Baltic to Lake Constance, all on tree lined roads.

Or the Bertha Benz Memorial Route from Mannheim to Heidelberg, the first ever road trip.

And why not the ‘Energy Route of Lusatian Industrial Heritage’? This takes in 250km of post-industrial landscape such as former open cast mines, and power stations, north of Dresden.

Especially intriguing is the Thuringia Route of Human Rights and Democracy, marking out significant sites of protest through Germany’s two 20th century dictatorships.

See more at Germany.Travel.

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Switzerland’s Gotthard Tunnel shuts overnight for maintenance every weekday this month reports TCS, Monday to Friday, from 21:00-05:00 (6-10 June, 13-17 June, 20-24 June and 27 June-1 July). Meanwhile, Swiss voters yesterday overwhelmingly rejected a plan for a new road fund. Backers had wanted all road taxes spent on maintaining and improving the road network, and the CHF1.5 billion ‘milked off’ for other services to be retained. However, more than 70 percent said no. The govt wants a new fund comprised of vehicle taxes plus increased taxes on fuel says Swiss.info. Voters in Geneva also voted for a new ‘lake crossing’, either bridge or tunnel. No specifics are available yet but one front-running plan is a 4km tunnel from the A1a off-shoot on the west bank to just south of Collonge-Bellerive. A lake crossing was previously backed by voters in 1988 but failed to materialise says @WRS though it is included in the Canton’s transport plan to 2030. Photo @DriveEurope

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roundup: NORWAY. Contrary to intense international excitement at the end of last week – particularly by EV pioneer Elon Musk – politicians have not decided to ban the sale fossil-fuelled vehicles by 2025. A press release from the Conservative (Høyre) party – which leads the governing coalition – called the reports ‘misleading’ says The Local Norway. ‘The government and its partners agree on a new step on the way towards a low-emission society… but there is no talk of banning the sale of diesel and petrol vehicles in 2025,’ it says. Instead it seems the parties have only agreed on targets for low emission vehicles. Similarly misplaced excitement greeted the news in March that the Netherlands had decided to ban conventionally powered vehicles by 2025, but that turned out to be just a motion passed by the lower house of parliament. COACH TRAVEL. Six passengers were injured including one seriously after a gunman fired twice at a coach on a motorway in southern France on Saturday night. The coach was full of Czech nationals returning home after a holiday in Spain when the shots were fired from a bridge on the A7 near Saulce-sur-Rhone, twenty miles south of Valence, reports Le Dauphine. The injuries were caused by shattered glass. A woman was seriously injured in the eye. The shots were probably fired from a hunting rifle says Reuters. No motive has been established. Meanwhile, two passengers were killed and 49 injured after a coach collided with a parked truck early on Sunday on a minor road near Montoro, north east of Cordoba in southern Spain says Teletica. And fifteen people were killed when school bus fell into a canal outside Osmaniye near Adana in southern Turkey reports DHA. NETHERLANDS. Soldiers will bolster checks on vehicles crossing to the UK through Hoek van Holland, Europoort and IJmuiden says DutchNews.nl. At around 500, the number of stowaways caught in the first four months of the year matched the entire total from 2015. Nearly half were Albanian and more than a hundred were from Afghanistan. However, there is apparently no evidence to say migrants are moving north from Calais.

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The most sustained motorway flood in recent memory has finally been resolved.

All photos Pascal Foulon or Didier Depoorter for VINCI Autoroutes.

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Ten days after it closed due to catastrophic flooding just north of Orleans, the A10 finally and fully reopened this morning. Work carried on throughout last night to put the finishing touches. Photo @VINCIautoroutes

Thursday: the A10 north of Orleans is finally flood-free. However, operations continue to clean the road way and make any repairs. There is still no reopening date according to VINCI‘s latest update.

Monday: the remaining stranded vehicles were rescued from the A10 at Orleans overnight according to the latest update from VINCI Autoroutes. Meanwhile, the A71 northbound to Orleans is now open from Salbris, 15 miles north of Vierzon. See a map of the current closures. It is still not clear when the A10 itself might reopen. More water than 22 Olympic swimming pools is still on the carriageway, 80,000 m3 in all says France TV Info. Aside from that, the issue is potential damage to the road. Vinci says pumping and inspection is likely to take several days.

Sunday: the first vehicles stranded on the A10 at Orleans have been freed. Around 100 trucks and 200 cars, spread over 3km, have been trapped between two flooded sections of the motorway north of Orleans since Tuesday. VINCI Autoroutes has been working since Thursday to create a ‘dry corridor’ from a line rubble bags covered by a waterproof membrane. It finally succeeded late yesterday enabling water to be pumped out overnight and tow trucks to move in first thing this morning. In its latest update, VINCI Autoroutes says the rest of the vehicles will be given back to owners throughout the day. Meanwhile, more sections of A10 have reopened to local traffic, including the A19 junction both ways at Artenay. However, through traffic should continue to avoid the area on the A11-A28 via Le Mans. Photo @VINCIAutoroutes

Saturday: sections of A71 between Vierzon and Orleans reopened yesterday afternoon – on top of the A10 sections reopened on Thursday – otherwise efforts continue to free vehicles still stranded on the A10. Two columns of rubble bags are being placed along the carriageway to create a ‘dry corridor’. More later. In the meantime, the road openings are mainly for local traffic. Transit traffic should continue to bypass Orleans on the A11 and A28, or A85 via Tours. Update: progress on reopening more sections including junctions and interchanges but the vehicles remain stranded for the time being. Photo @VINCIAutoroutes. Latest updates in French at Vinci-Autoroutes.com

Friday: two long sections of the flooded A10 north of Orleans were reopened last night, both southbound – Allainville to Artenay in the north and Château-Renault to Meung-sur-Loire to the south of Orleans (see this map). This is for local traffic – through traffic is still being redirected via the A11 and A28. The A71 remains closed northbound from Vierzon according to the latest VINCI Autoroutes update. Efforts continue to lay two lines of tightly packed rubble sacks along the motorway – 6000t in all – to create a ‘dry corridor’ and allow 300 stranded vehicles to escape. Photo @VINCIautoroutes

Thursday: still no sign of the when the flooded A10 (and A71) at Orleans will reopen. The situation remains essentially unchanged says the latest update from VINCI Autoroutes. Drivers with stranded vehicles have spent another night in hotels, or been taken home says VINCI. Fans heading for Sunday’s Le Mans 24 Hour test day are advised to give the area a wide berth. Official diversions are in place via the A28, A11 and A85. Update: great detail in VINCI’s latest update. The A10 at Orleans is flooded in four places over 7km to a maximum depth of 1.3 metres. 100 trucks and 200 cars are stranded on a 3km dry section. VINCI is deploying 200 people this afternoon to pump out the water – at 4000 m3 per hour – and build temporary dikes with 6000t of rubble to create a ‘dry corridor’.

Wednesday: Nearly 400 stranded drivers and passengers were evacuated by the armed forces and given emergency accommodation last night after flooding closed the A10 autoroute just north of Orleans yesterday morning. 250 cars remain stranded and 200 truck drivers have stayed with their vehicles. There is still no word on when the road will reopen. For the latest see VINCI‘s update page (French only). In the meantime, drivers are diverted via the A11 and A28. Photo @VINCIAutoroutes

Tuesday: long stretches of the A10 and A71 around Orleans closed due to flooding.

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Hundreds of hillclimbers head for the Czech Republic this weekend for the historic Ecce Homo.

Also, no end in sight for vehicles stuck on the A10 at Orleans. Appeal for info on new cross-border Switzerland hire car ban. Norovirus crops up on Nordic ferry.

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The Audi R8 LMS Ultra of Spaniard Jose Lopez-Fombona at Sternberk. Photo @FIA.

Hill Climbs have been held continuously at Sternberk in the eastern Czech Republic since 1905.

Clubs from equidistant Vienna and Wroclaw – about 225km – held events in fits and starts until the 1950s.

The modern history begins in 1981 when it became part of the Championship of Europe, a position it has held since.

More than 200 drivers roll in this weekend for ‘traditionally one of the most exciting rounds’ of the FIA European Hill Climb Championship.

At the last weather-hit race in Portugal, the Audi R8 LMS Ultra of Spaniard Jose Lopez-Fombona, above, challenged a pair of Mitsubishi Lancers for the honours in the slower Category 1.

Czech is the most popular nationality in the EHCC. In Latin Ecce Homo means ‘Behold the Man’.

Many courses claim to be ‘the most beautiful circuit in the world’ and Sternberk is one of them.

The course starts in the centre, beside the Sitka river – a tributary of the Morava, further south in Olomouc – before heading north through the town on the twisty 44423 Opavska then three long hairpins and a short run up main road 46 to the finish after 7.5km.

Sternberk also hosts a major historic hill climb event in the autumn. More at EcceHomo.cz.

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Still no sign of the when the flooded A10 (and A71) at Orleans will reopen. The situation remains essentially unchanged says the latest update from VINCI Autoroutes. Drivers with stranded vehicles have spent another night in hotels, or been taken home says VINCI. Fans heading for Sunday’s Le Mans 24 Hour test day are advised to give the area a wide berth. Official diversions are in place via the A28, A11 and A85. Exits are barred to HGVs at A10 J16 Mer and J17 Blois, A71 J3 Lamotte Beuvron and J4 Salbris and A85 J14 Romorantin and J13 Selles-sur-Cher, Saint Aignan. Peage Romorantin (A85) and Lamotte Beuvron (A71) are closed in both directions for cars. Update: great detail in VINCI’s latest update. The A10 at Orleans is flooded in four places over 7km to a maximum depth of 1.3 metres. 100 trucks and 200 cars are stranded on a 3km dry section. VINCI is deploying 200 people this afternoon to pump out the water – at 4000 m3 per hour – and build temporary dikes with 6000t of rubble to create a ‘dry corridor’.

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roundup: SWITZERLAND. State broadcaster Swiss.info wants to hear from anyone who has had problems hiring cars in Switzerland. A new EU customs law apparently bans EU citizens from driving Swiss-registered vehicles in the EU (as reported in the Guardian). The situation seems exceptionally confused with some hire firms carrying on as usual while others insisting drivers do not take vehicles into surrounding countries. Some firms now have EU-registered cars specifically for this purpose. Geneva airport, sandwiched on the French border, seems particularly affected. Until the situation is clarified the advice is to make it very clear on booking that the hire car is to be taken into the EU. Meanwhile, AutoEurope has published a handy, very detailed fact sheet for drivers hiring cars in the EU (compiled before the cross-border issue surfaced). FERRIES. Sickness bug Norovirus is a staple on cruise ships but this is the first time we have heard of an incidence aboard a cruise ferry. This week, 150 passengers aboard Silja Symphony – which sails between Helsinki and Stockholm – have become ill in a confirmed outbreak reports YLE News. The source has not been identified but the ship and the passenger terminals are being thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.

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Few question ‘environmentally friendly’ rail even as it smashes a hundred miles of tunnels through the Alps and, despite soaking up most EU transport funding, fails to tempt freight off the roads.

Also, no news on when flooded A10 Orleans might reopen. MPs criticise ‘rushed’ £250 million M20 truck park. Contracts inked on Germany-Denmark 18km undersea tunnel.

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‘GREEN’ RAIL SMASHES 100 MILES THROUGH THE ALPS

World’s longest tunnel highlights EU failure to tempt rail from roads.

Gotthard Base Tunnel unveiled today. Photo Gottardo2016.ch

Nothing can take away from the achievement. Despite the seventeen years it took to build, the Gotthard Base Tunnel was actually finished six months ahead of time. The €11 billion budget over-ran by just 21 percent, well under the European average of 27 percent (according to DW.de).

At 35.5 miles (57.1km), GBT is the world’s longest tunnel and also the deepest, buried beneath up to 2300 metres of rock on the way between Altdorf and Biasca in central south Switzerland – a central part of the European Rhine-Alpine Corridor between Rotterdam and Genoa.

More than 300 high speed trains will pass through each day when commercial services start in December.

GBT is one of a number of new Alpine rail tunnels including the under-construction Brenner Base Tunnel and the soon-to-start Lyon-Turin line.

All together they will amount to more than one hundred miles of fresh tunnelling through the Alps.

Opposition to the Lyon-Turin line has been fierce, but otherwise all this destruction has passed without objections – despite the oft-cited ‘fragile Alpine ecosystem’ – presumably because all these projects promise to move freight off the roads (so-called ‘modal shift’).

Switzerland actually already does very well with modal shift. Rail currently carries just under 70 percent of all freight according to Trasporto Europa.

Within the EU however, modal shift has been an abject, expensive failure.

Just last week an EU Court of Auditors report said that, ‘Despite the EU policy objectives of shifting freight from road to rail and the EU funding available for rail infrastructure [€28 billion, 2007-2013], rail freight transport performance in the EU is unsatisfactory. On average, rail freight modal share at the EU level has actually declined slightly since 2011.’

‘Shippers clearly prefer road over rail for transporting goods,’ it says.

Not to be put off, the EU continues to plough money into trains. Of the €12.8 billion allocated under the first round of CEF Connecting Europe Facility funds this year, €9.5 billion went to rail according to the Commission.

Last week, EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc told MEPs that the rest of the €26.25 billion CEF money was now, ‘Really completely, pretty much dedicated to railways.’

As drivers across the Continent complain about the state of the roads they may want to stop for a moment to consider where all their money has gone.

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Nearly 400 stranded drivers and passengers were evacuated by the amred forces and given emergency accommodation last night after flooding closed the A10 autoroute just north of Orleans yesterday morning. 250 cars remain stranded and 200 truck drivers have stayed with their vehicles. There is still no word on when the road will reopen. For the latest see VINCI‘s update page (French only). In the meantime, drivers are diverted via the A11 and A28. Photo @VINCIAutoroutes

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roundup: OPERATION STACK. The Transport Committee of UK MPs calls the decision to spend £250 million on a 4000-strong truck park beside the M20 – the size of Disneyland California, and the world’s second biggest – ‘rushed’ and says the government has failed to make the case. The park is intended to replace the Operation Stack truck queue which closes the M20 during major delays at the Channel ports and Eurotunnel. The FTA Freight Transport Association says it understands the Committee’s reservations but is concerned it will merely prolong the misery for Kent residents. Last week Balfour Beatty was awarded a £130 million contract to build the truck park element despite the location not being finalised. It should at least partly open by summer 2017. FEHMARN TUNNEL. It’s a big week for tunnels. Yesterday, French construction giant Vinci – which, incidentally, also operates a large network of toll roads in France – inked contracts to design and build the 18km ‘Fehmarn Belt’ road and rail tunnel between Germany and Denmark. The three agreements, with a combined value of €3.4 billion, cover construction of the tunnel itself, the factory to make the interlinked pre-fab concrete tubes which will be laid on the seabed, plus the surrounding infrastructure. It will be the world’s longest road and rail tunnel and will cut the journey time to ten minutes by car, from an hour currently by ferry or the 160km drive up through and across Denmark. An end date is not mentioned, and has been subject to some slippage, but it should be ready by early next decade.

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A new court case apparently to force car companies to pay to use frozen lakes for winter testing could have big implications for everyone else enjoying Nordic ‘right to roam’ rules.

Also, Stelvio Pass – and most of its near neighbours – has finally opened for the summer. The day’s progress on the French fuel shortage. And a quick news roundup on newly open mountain roads, Calais migrants jailed for assault on truck driver, new cross-Belarus road plus, a Brexit reverse at Eurotunnel.

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CAR MAKERS ABUSING SWEDEN’S RIGHT TO ROAM

Land owners want to be paid for winter testing grounds.

It may come as a surprise to learn that big money car makers do not pay to use Nordic frozen lakes for winter testing.

They use the lakes under Scandinavia’s default ‘right to roam’ laws which allow free access, even to private land.

But a court case being brought by a forestry company in Arjeplog, northern Sweden – one of the most popular testing grounds – may put paid to this cosy arrangement, and could have implications for many other users.

Environmental lawyer Margareta Svenning tells Radio Sweden this week, ‘In the Swedish tradition we normally say you can walk, ride a horse or ride a bike but as soon as you get in a car and use a motorised vehicle it is a different question. You can use other people’s property but not for motorised activities.’

For instance, one activity often expressly forbidden even under ‘right to roam’ is off-roading.

Aside from any damage that may occur, or other disturbance, the other issue is where companies or individuals make money from open access.

‘It’s about money of course,’ says Svenning. ‘Is it reasonable for a company to benefit from someone else’s property?’

A negative ruling has implications not just for car companies, and the hauliers who transfer cars to and from the testing grounds, but also for all the winter ice driving courses and more prosaic activities such as organised mountain biking, snowmobiles, hiking and canoe touring.

Of all the Nordic countries, Finland has the most liberal right to roam rules with 90 percent of land open to the public.

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A few weeks after it was originally supposed to open – though, at the end of May, bang on its usual schedule – Italy’s blue chip mountain road Passo dello Stelvio (aka Stilfserjoch or just plain old Stelvio) has finally thrown off its winter lock today. Even better, according to Bormio.eu, most other high roads in the area are open too, apart from Forcola di Livigno, Gavia and Mortirolo. Meanwhile, according to Graubunden Strasseninfo, Ofenpass – a few miles west of Stelvio, over the Swiss border – and Fluelapass and Albula are all open too. Photo Stelvio webcam.

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FRANCE FUEL ‘CRISIS’: fuel shortages continue but there was a lot of evidence yesterday (and more today) to say the situation is not as bad as thought. The French transport minister said there were particular issues in Paris, and Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur in the south (the latest govt update says the situation remains delicate in the Paris region and the West, but see below). This morning Dutch motoring club @ANWBEuropa says remaining hotspots include Lille, Paris, Bordeaux, Brest and Nantes. Brittany Ferries says its 2000 staff in west France have been able to find fuel and that the situation has been improving for the past 48 hours (the Morbihan region, west of Rennes, tweeted yesterday to say most of its filling stations were open). P&O says media reports of shortages don’t match its experience on the ground, plus it now allows 5 litres of fuel in an ‘approved container’. @ThisFrenchLife says today that out of 155 petrol stations in the Dordogne, just one is out of fuel. Ian Martin‘s dad is on the way from Nice to Calais today and has just refuelled for the second time. @TrafficBasher is just back from the French Alps, refuelling for the final time 35 miles south of Calais. He said, ‘Every town/village with a choice of supermarket(s) had fuel somewhere last night from Morzine to Macon’. In another bit of encouraging news, all of France’s oil depots are now back in operation except one. Refineries remain on strike but the govt reportedly holds several months’-worth of reserves. QUICK NEWS ROUNDUP. Col du Petit Saint Bernard and Col di Glandon in the French Alps have both opened today according to @TRAFrhonalp… Two migrants were sent to prison for three months after assaulting a truck driver in Calais reports La Voix Calais… The EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development look set to take part in financing for the €315 million upgrade of the M10 highway across southern Belarus reports World Highways. The 520km project from near Brest at the Polish border to Gomel near the Russian border is part of the EU-Russia-China alternative route… Eurotunnel boss Jacques Gounon tells Reuters his comment last year that the UK leaving the EU would lead to an ‘incredible boost’ in duty free shopping was light hearted. He now says Brexit would have little or no impact on business.

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Fuel shortages in France continue but mounting evidence says the situation is not quite as bad as thought.

Also, Roll-Royce kicks off the International Summer Season on Sardinia.

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FRANCE FUEL SHORTAGE LIKELY OVERSTATED

But still problems in Paris, and on the Cote d’Azur.

Brittany Ferries services may be affected by the general strike in France today and tomorrow, but at least Pont Aven is back. The UK-France-Spain operator’s flagship has been out of action for almost three weeks with propeller trouble. However, drivers hoping to dodge the French fuel shortage with a ferry direct to Spain may struggle to find a seat, but it may still be worth checking at Brittany Ferries.

The number of filling stations in France running dry or struggling for fuel apparently topped 45 percent overnight.

But the accuracy of the widely-referenced Mon Essence app has been called into question.

Newspaper Sud Ouest phoned thirty of the stations marked as closed yesterday and found they were all open.

That the situation has been exaggerated somewhat fits with what have been hearing on the ground.

Thomas Brimblecombe of Classic GT, who lead a tour group back from Alsace yesterday, told us, ‘One Total service station I saw did not have fuel, between Nancy and Reims. Everywhere else did.’

Likewise, the ‘Essential Guide to Driving in Europe’ author Julian Parish said, ‘Drove back from Calais to Paris yesterday afternoon on A26 and A1. Only one service station closed, others open OK.’

Local newspaper La Voix du Nord said last night, ‘Back to normal for filling stations in Nord Pas de Calais.’

Meanwhile, Undiscovered Pyrenees told us, ‘Doesn’t seem to be a problem down here in the south west. In Saint Gaudens today, no queues, tanker was delivering. No panic! Same on the A64 south of Toulouse according to a friend. Service stations all open, no queues.’

And Fifth Gear TV presenter Tiff Needell has apparently crossed France in a supercar convoy over the past few days without any problems (we did ask him for a comment but are yet to hear back).

Most telling, Luke Turner arrived in Marseille this afternoon after driving down today. ‘Seems to be more petrol than diesel,’ he says, ‘Most toll roads had fuel apart from Paris. We filled up in Chalon sur Saone.’

Sparky Lotus said there was no problem with unleaded fro Calais to Nice though there was a €20 maximum at Nice.

Transport minister Alain Vidalies said this morning that the situation has improved in the west and north – two of the areas most affected initially – but that problems remain in Paris and the PACA Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur region, from Marseille to the Italian border, in the south east.

Even in PACA however, most filling stations in Antibes were fully stocked yesterday according to Ian Martin.

Despite all this, until the situation obviously improves – the French government is making compromise noises this morning – the RAC advice ‘not to cross France without enough fuel’ must stand. It also says it does not recommend drivers to carry jerry cans for long distances. Neither P&O nor DFDS allow fuel cans on ferries but Eurotunnel does allow drivers to take extra fuel in ‘appropriate’ containers.

Resources: Mon Essence fuel comparison site has a real-time map of affected filling stations, and unaffected stations. VisActu tweets regular updates about the areas of the country affected. See also this twitter list of all France’s prefectures, many of them with info on the local area. See updates on the autoroute networks from SANEF, APRR and Vinci, and from freight refueller AS24. See what happened yesterday, and the current govt sitrep.

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Rolls-Royce kicks off the ‘International Summer Season’ by opening of its now traditional pop-up dealership on Promenade du Port in Porto Cervo, on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda. Photo @RollsRoyceCars

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It would certainly be exciting to drive across France at the moment, and probably possible. But for those not wanting to risk running out of fuel, the best alternative is through Switzerland.

Also, a massive sinkhole opens up beside Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Firm news expected soon on reopening a UK-Scandinavia ferry link. Roundup of the latest on France fuel shortages.

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CALAIS TO NICE VIA THE SWISS ALPS

Save on road tolls, and get a free Swiss motorway pass.

Looking down on Switzerland’s A2 motorway, just north of the Gotthard Tunnel. Photo @DriveEurope

The good news for drivers crossing the Channel is that the Belgian border is just 42 miles east of Eurotunnel (and 37 miles from Calais and 21 miles from Dunkirk port).

Aside from plentiful fuel there are other advantages to heading through Belgium. It saves swingeing French road tolls, plus the fuel in Luxembourg is the cheapest in Western Europe (see the route in more detail).

To get to Nice in south east France cut down past Strasbourg into Switzerland at Basel, at worst a few miles from the German border most of the way should your tank run dry.

Then head south to Milan and Savona on the coast via the Gotthard Tunnel.

(Or, as the mountain roads open, take the Furka and Simplon Passes from Andermatt north of Gotthard via Domodossola, it’s only an extra thirty miles, see more at PassFinder).

The Switzerland way is 911 miles compared to 762 miles direct Calais-Nice.

The interesting thing is the toll charges. According to Autoroutes.fr, Calais-Nice through France works out at €106.30.

Meanwhile, via Switzerland, the section from Strasbourg to Basel comes in at €9.50, plus the €40 Swiss motorway vignette and €39.95 tolls through Italy (according to Mappy.com).

That works out at a grand total of €89.45, a not unhandy €16.85 saving.

The particularly great thing is that the Swiss vignette lasts for the rest of the year, and up until the end of January 2017, should you wish to use it again (see more at Road Tolls + Vignettes).

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A road near the famous Ponte Vecchio in central Florence collapsed early this morning. There are no reported injuries. A 70 metre stretch of Lungarno Torrigiani, between Ponte Vecchio and Ponte alle Grazie beside the River Arno sank by up to 7 metres. The river parapet or either of the bridges are not believed to be at risk. The incident is being blamed on a ruptured water pipe according to local press. Photo: Florence fire service.

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roundup: FERRY TO SCANDINAVIA. Potential passengers have waited a long time for news on if and when ferry services will restart between the UK and Scandinavia – ever since DFDS pulled the plug on the Harwich-Denmark service in September 2014 (and since 2008 for a ferry to the Nordic mainland). Happily it seems there will be some firm news to report in the not-too-distant future. Founding director of BritishScandinavian Paul Woodbury tells us this morning, ‘We’re at an advanced stage; I expect some shareable news in a few weeks.’ The firm has been working on a link between Newcastle and/or Bergen and Stavanger in petrolhead-paradise Norway. FRANCE FUEL SHORTAGE. Fuel shortages in France continue with up to 40 percent of filling stations fully or partially affected and problems in all parts of the country. See what happened yesterday, and the current govt sitrep. This of course means at least sixty percent of filling stations are operating normally. We hear restrictions have been lifted in Loiret Orleans region central France, and that there are no issues in Alsace. And that a depot near Valenciennes in northern France was ‘de-blockaded’ overnight (see the prefecture list below for info on local areas). The situation in the north, one of the hardest hit areas initially, ‘seems a little bit back to normal‘, at least in the Calais area. Updates on the autoroute networks from SANEF and Vinci look encouraging and freight refueller AS24 is resupplying. However, in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region in the south, out of 1780 stations in total, last night 247 were closed and 297 running dry according to local reports. Until the situation improves – and there is deadlock between the government and the strikers currently – the RAC advice to ‘not cross France without enough fuel’ must stand. The RAC has also said it does not recommend drivers to carry jerry cans for long distances. Neither P&O nor DFDS allow fuel cans on their ferries but Eurotunnel does allow drivers to take up to three 10 litre fuel cans in an appropriate container.

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